Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 22 April 1886 — Page 10

a 4

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A9RAMAM LINCOLN DL Anuii'ita

A LINCOLN MEMORIAL.

THE STORY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN RETOLD. T. .: .j. "1 *n Tlie Ti agedy tliat IVas Enacted in Washington OK the 14th of April, Twentyone Years ARO—A Tribute to tlvo Memory of Our Greatest Martyr.

The final victory was won. The bitter war for the Union was over. In the north the '-joy guns" of peace hacl been fired, the bells runp. Every flag was flying, every heart beating high. The Federal army had entered Richmond victorious, and the Stars and Stripes at last waved over the Confederate capital. The silent soldier who now lies buried at Riverside had directed the concluding operations of the long struggle. The batt.ie of Five Forks, fought on the 1st of April, 1*65, had been the decisive one. It is known in history as the great military masterpiece of Gen. Phil Sheridan. The backbone of the Confederacy was broken at last. When Fahn Sunday broke over our mangled country it ushered in the reign of peace. Bwoitls were sheathed and victorious palms waved. The shackles of 3,00\00rt slaves were broken, and the light of liberty slione from the north to the south. The flag of our fathers floated once more in serene triumph over the land.

On the 14th of April, 1861, this flag was first lowered at the bidding of the enemy, and the war for the Union begun. On the same day, lb35, .occurred the most tragic event in our national history, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The exultation of victor}' was suddenly changed to the lamentations of grief.

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, made for himself an infamous and endless notoriety when he murdered the man who had directed our ship of state through the most tempestuous waters it ever encountered. An actor himself, and the third son of the eminent English tragedian, Junius Brutus Booth, he craved the reprehensible fame that attaches to a bold and dramatically wicked deed.

It has been said that Lincoln for years had a presentiment that he would reach a high place and then be struck down in some tragic way. This may or may not have been true. At all events, he took no precautions to kaep out of the way of danger. So many threats had been madf against him that his friends were alarmed, and frequently urged him not to go out unattended. To all their entreaties he had the same answer: "If they kill me the next man will be just as bad for them. In a country like this where our habit* are simple, and milst be, assassination is always possible, and will come if they are determined upon it."

Whatever premonition of his tragic fate he may have bad, there is nothing to pfove that he "felt the nearness of the awful hour. Doomed men rtse and go about their daily duties as unoppressed, often, as those whose paths know no shadow. On that never to be forgotten 14th of April President Lincoln passed the day in the usual manner. In the morning his son, Capt. Robert Lincoln, breakfasted with him. The young man had just returned from the capitulation of Lee, and he described in detail all the circum stances of that momentous episode of tin. close of the war, to which the president list ened with the closest interest. After breakfast the president spent an hour with Speaker Colfax, talking about bis future policy, about to be submitted to his cabinet. At 11 o'clock he met the cabinet. Gen. Grant was present, He spent the afternoon with Governor Oglesby, Senator Yates and other friends from Illinois. He was invited by the manager of Ford's theatre, in Washington, to attend in the evening a performance of the play, "Our American Cousin," with Laura Keene as the leading lady. This play, now so well known to all play goers, and in which the late Sothern afterward made fortune and fame, was then comparatively unheralded. Lincoln was fond or the drama. Brought up in a provincial way, in the days when theatres were unknown outside of the larger cities, the beautiful art of the actor was fresh and delightful to him. He had madp a study of Shakespeare, and never lost an opportunity of seeing his characters rendered by the masters of dramatic art. But on that evening, it is said, he was not eager to go. The play was new, consequently not alluring to him but he yielded to the wishes of Mi's. Lincoln and went. They took with them Miss Harris and IVfaj. Rathbone, daughter and stepson of Senator Harris, of New York.

The theatre was crowded. At 9:20 the president and his party entered. The audience rose and cheered enthusiastically as they passed to the "state box" reserved for them. Little did any one present dream that within the hour enthusiasm would give place to shrieks of horror. It was 10 o'clock when Booth came upon the scene to enact the last and greatest tragedy of the war. He had planned carefully, but not correctly. A good horse awaited him at the rear of the theatre, on which he intended to ride into friendly shelter among the hills of Maryland. He made his way to the president's box—a double one in the second tier, at the left of the 6tage. The separating partition had been removed, and both boxes thrown into one.

yuiU'iuio

Booth entered the theatre nonchalantly, glanced at the stage with apparent interest, then slowly worked his way around into the outer passage leading •toward the box occupied by the president. At the end of an inner passage leading to the box door, one

of the president's "messengers" was stationed to prevent unwelcome intrusions. Booth presented a card to him, stating that

Lincoln had sent

for

[rH

BAK ©*ACeOAVMN3T

So deliberately had he planned

Mr.

Maj. Rathbone heard the report, and an instant later saw the murderer, about six feet from the president, and grappled with him, but his grasp was shaken off.. Booth dropped his pistol and drew a long, thin, deadly-looking knife, with which he wounded the major. Then, touching his left hand to the railing of the box, he vaulted over to the stage, eight or nine feet below. In that descent an unlooked for and curious thing happened, which foiled all the plans of the assassin and was tho means of bringing him to bay at last.' Lincoln's box was draped with the American flag, and Booth, in jumping, caught his spur in its folds, tearing it down and spraining his ankle He crouched as he fell, falling upon one knee, but soon straightened himself and stalked theatrically across the stage, brandishing hw knife and shouting the state mottp of Virginia, "Sic semper tyrannis!' afterward adding, "The south is avenged!" *He made his exit on the opposite side of the stage, passing Miss Keene as. he went out. A man named Stewart, a tall lawyer of Washington, was the only person with presence of mind enough to spring upon the stage and follow him, and he was too late.

'•NIhi

"•LINCOLN

It had all been done so quickly and dramatically that many in the audience were dazed and could not understand that anything not apart of the play had happened. When, at last, the awful truth was known to them there ensued a scene, the like of which was never known in a theatre before. Women shrieked, sobbed and fainted. Men cursed and ravdd, or were dumb with horror and amazement. Miss Keene stepped to the front and begged the frightened and dismayed audience to be calm. Then she entered the president's box with water and stimulants. Medical aid was summoned and came with flying feet, but came too late. The murderer's bullet had done its wicked work well. The president hardly stirred in his chair, and never spoke or showed any signs of consciousness again.

They carried him immediately to the house of Mr. Peterson, opposite the theatre, and there, at 7:22 the next morning, the 15th of April, he died.

The night of Lincoln's assassination was a memorable one in Washington. Secretary Seward was attacked and wounded while lying in bed with a broken arm.

The murder of the president put the authorities

011

their guard against a wide-reach

ing conspiracy, and threw the public into a 6tate of terror. The awful event was felt even by those who knew not of it. Horsemen clattered through the silent streets of Washington spreading the sad tidings, and the telegraph wires carried the terrible story everywhere. The nation awakened from its dream of peace on the 15th of April, 1805, to learn that its protector, leader, friend and restorer iiad been laid low brastase-

had been

him, and was permitted

to pass. After gaining an entrance and closing the hall dbor, he took apiece of

prepared for the occasion, and placed

it in an indentation in the wall,

bo*ni

one «ad

about four

feet from the floor, and the other against the molding of the door panel a few inches higher, making it iifipostrtble fdr any one to enter from without. The box had two doors. He bored a gimlet hole in the panel of one, reaming it out with his knife, so as to leave it a little larger than a buckshot on the inside, while on the other side it was big enough to give his eye a wide range. Both doors had spring locks. To secure against their being locked he had loosened the screws with which the bolts were fastened. The following is an accurate diagram of the box:

that

the

very seats in the box had been arranged to suit his purpose by an accomplice. Spangler, an attache of the theatre, was suspected. The president sat in the left hand comer of the box, nearest the audienco, in an easy armchair. Next him, on the right, sat Mrs. Lincoln. A little distance to the right of both Miss Harris was seated, %vith Maj. Rathbone at her left, and a little in the rear of Mrs. Lincoln, who, intent on the play, was leaning forward, with one hand resting on her husband's knee. The president was leaning upon one hand, and with the other was toying with a portion of the drapery. His face was partially turned to the audience, and wore a pleasant smile.

The assassin swiftly entered the box through the door at the right, and the next instant fired. The ball entered just behind the president's left ear, and, though not producing instantaneous death, completely obliterated all consciousness.

THE TERRE HAUTE WEEKLY GAZETTE.

mad "avenger." W. O. Stoddard, in Us "Life of Lincoln," says: "It

was

if there

death in every house throughout

the land. By both north and south alike the awful new* fras received with a shudder and a

momentary spasm of unbelief. Then followed one of the most remarkable spectacles in the history of the human race, for there is nothing else at all like it on record. Bells had tolled before at the death of a loved rnler, but never did all

bells toll so mourn

fully as they did that day. Business ceased. 11M came together in public meetings as il by common impulse, and party lines and sectional hatreds seemed to be obliterated."

The assassination took place on Friday evening, and on the following Sunday funeral services were held in all the churches in the land, and every church was draped tn mourning.

Mr. Lincoln's body was embalmed, and on the following Wednesday funeral services were held in the East room of the White PTousa. From thence the body was taken to the rotunda «f

the uapicoi, wnere

was

vie\ved by thousands of sorrowing people.

O11

the 21st of the month the sombre funeral train loft Washington, feoing first to Philadelphia and New York, and then moved westward^ followed by the lamentations *of a stricken nation. "The mournful pageant of ita reception by the people surpasses »all power of words fcir its description. Slowly the train proceeded, from city to city, between almost continuous lines of sorrowing multitudes doing last honors to their beloved chief magistrate, whose hold upon thehk hearts they had not known till they had lost him." The train reached Springfield, Ills., 011 the morning of the 3d of May, and on the following day the body of Lincoln, the martyr, was shut from the sight of man forr, in the grava

As the funeral cortege passed through New York it was reverently gazed upon by a mass of humanity impossible to enumerate. No ovation could be so eloquent as the spectacle of the vast population, hushed and bareheaded, under the bright spring sky gazing upon his coffin. Lincoln's own words over the dead at Gettysburg came to many. as the stately car went by: "The world will little note nor ldng remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we did here."

It was remembered, too, that on the 23d of February, 1861, as he raised 'the American flag over Independence hall, in Philadelphia, he spoke of the sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not only to this country, butj "I hope," he said, "to the world for^pH future time. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated upon this spot than surrender it."

When he died the veil that hid tiis greatness was torn aside, and the country then knew what it had possessed and lost in him. ANew York paper, of April 29, 1865, said: "No one who personally knew him but will now feel that the deep, furrowed sadness of his face seemed to. forecast his. fate. The genial gentleness of his manner, his homely simplicity, the cheerful humor that never failed are now seen to have been but the tender light that played around the rugged heights of his strong and noble nature. It is small consolation that he dies at the moment of the war when he could best be spared, for no. nation is ever reacty for t&e loss of such a friend. But it is something to remember that he lived to see the slow day breaking. Like Moses he had marched witfc us through the wilderness. From the Leight of patriotic vision he beheld the golden fields bf the future waving in peace and p1. aty out of sight. He beheld and blessed God, but was not to entor in."

In a discourse delivered on Lincoln on the 23d of that month, Henry Ward Beecher said: "And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and states are his pall-bearers, and the cannon speaks the hours with solemn progression. Dead, dead, dead, he yet speaketh. Is Washington dead? Is Hampden dead? Is anjr man that was ever fit to live dead? Disenthralled'of flesh, risen to the unobstructed sphere where passion never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life is now grafted upon the infinite, and will be fruitful, as no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast overcome. Ye people, behold the martyr whose blood, as so many articulate words, pleads for fidelity, for, law, for liberty." •.

It was soon known that the murder of Lincoln was one result of a conspiracy, which had for its victims Secretary Seward, and, probably, Vice-President Johnson, Secretary Stanton, Gen. Grant and perhaps others. Booth had left a card on Mr. Johnson the day before, possibly with the' intention of killing him. Mr. fJeward received wounds from which he soon recovered. Grant, who was to have accompanied Lincoln to the theatre on the night of the assassination, and did not, escaped unassailed. The general conspiracy was poorly planned and lamely executed. It involved about twenty-five persons. Mrs. Surratt, David C. Harold, Lewis Payne, Edward Spangler, Michael McLoughlin, J. W. Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, and Dr. Sagrael Mudd, who set Booth's leg, which was dislocated by the fall from the stage box, were among the number captured and tried.

After the assassination Booth esraped unmolested from the theatre, mounted his horse and rode away, accompanied by Harold, into Maryland. Cavalrymen scoured the country, and eleven days after the shooting discovered them in a barn on Garrett's farm,

near Port Royal on the Rappahanock. The soldiers surrounded the bam and demanded a surrender. Alter the second demand Harold surrendered, under a shower of curses from Booth, but Booth refused, declaring that he would never be taken alive. The captain of the squad then fired the barn. A correspondent thus describes the scene: "The blaze lit up *ho recesses of the great barn till every wash's r.ost and cobweb in the

root were luminous, flingiiig streaks of

right

red

and violet across the tumbled farm gear in the

corner. They tinged the beams, the

columns, the barricades, where, clover and timothy piled high held toward the hot incendiary their, separate straws for the funeral pile. They bathed the murderer's retreat in a beautiful illumination, and, whil* in bold outlines his figure stood revealed, they rose like an impenetrable wall to guard from sight

the hated enemy who lit them. Behind the blaze, with his eye to a crack, Col. Conger saw Wilkes Booth standing upright upon a crutch. »At the gleam of fire Booth dropped his crutch and carbine, and on both hands crept up to the spot to espy the iticendiary and shoot him dead. His eyes were lustrous with fever, and swelled and rolled in terrible beauty., while his teeth were fixed, and he wore the expression of one lit the calmness before frenzy. In vain h» posred with vengeance in his look the blase that made him visible concealed his enemy. A second he turned glaring at the fire, as

if to leap upon it and extinguish it, but it had made such headway that he dismissed the thought. As calmly as upon the battlefield a veteran stands amidst the hail of ball and shell and plunging iron, Booth turned and pushed for the door, carbine in poise, and the last reftolve of death, which we name despair, set on his high, bloodless forehead."

Just then Sergt. Boston Corbett fired through a crevice and shot Booth in the^ieck. He was carried out of the barn and laid upon the eress. and there died about four hours •xrerward. Before his misguided soiu passed into the silence of death he whispered something which Lieut. Baker bent down to hear. "Tell mother I die for my country," he said, faintly. Reviving a moment later he repeated the words, and added, "I thought I did for the best."

His days of hiding and fleeing from his pursuers had left him pale, baggfiird, dirty and unkempt. He had cut off his mustache and cropped his hair close to his head, and he and IlaVold both wore the Confederate gray uniform.

Booth's body -was taken to Washington and a post mortem examination of it held on board the monitor Montauk, and on the night of the 27th of April it^nras given in charge of two men in a rowllbt, who, it is claimed, disposed of it in secresy—how none but themselves know. Numerous stories have been told of the final resting place of that hated dead man. Whoever knows the truth of it tells it not.

Sergt. Corbett, who ^hot Booth, fired without orders. The last instructions given by Col. Baker to CoL Conger and Lieut. Baker tfere: "Don't shoot Booth, but take him alive." Corbett, whose picture is here given, was something of a fanatic, and for a breach of discipline bad once been courtmartialed and- sentenced to be shot.

The order,however, was not executed, but he had .been drummed out of the regiment. He belonged to Company of the Sixteenth New York cavalry. He was English by birth, but was

BOSTON CORBETT.

brought up in this country, and learned the trade of hat finisher. While living in Boston he joined the Methodist Episcopal church. Never having been baptized, he was at a loss to know what name to adopt, but after making it a subject of prayer he took the name of Boston, in honor of the place of his conversion. He was ever undisciplined and erratic. He is said to be living in Kansas and draws a pensipn from the government.

Five of the conspirators were tried, and three, Payne, Harold and Mi's. Surratt, were hanged. Dr. Mudd was sent to the Dry Tortugas for a period of years, and there did such good work among the yellow fever sufferers during an epidemic that he was pardoned and returned to this country. He died oniy about two years ago at his home in Maryland, near Washington. Atzerodt was sent to the Dry Tortugas also, and died there years ago. John Surratt fled to Italy, and there entered the Papal guards. He was disovered by Archbishop Hughes, and by the courtesy of the Italian government, though the extradition laws did not cover his. case, vas delivered over to the United States for trial. At his first 'trial, the jury hung at the second, in which Edward Pierrepont was the government counsel, Surratt got off on the plea of limitations. He undertook to lecture, and began at Rockville, Md. The Evening Star, of Washington, reported the lecture, which was widely copied, and was of such a feeble character that it killed him as a lecturer. He went to Baltimore, where, it is said, he still lives. Spangler, the scene shifter, who was an accomplice of Booth, was sent to the Dry Tortugas, served out his term and died about ten years ago. McLoughlin, who was arrested because of his acquaintance with the conspirators, was' •sent to the Dry Tortugas and there died.

Ford's theatre was never played in after that memorable night. Tenor twelve days after the assassination Ford attempted to open it, but Stanton prevented it, and the government bought the theatre for $100,000, aijd converted it into a medical museum. Ford was a southern sympathizer. He ran two theatres until within a few weeks, one in Washington and one in Baltimore. He left Washington quite recently. Alison Naylpr, the livery man who let Booth have his horse, ctill lives in Washington. Maj. Rathbone, who was in the box with Lincoln when he was shot, died within the last two years. Stewart, the man who jumped on the stage to follow Booth, and announced to the audienco that he had escaped through the alley, died lately. Strange, but very few persons can now be found who were at the theatre that night. Laura Keene died a few years LLl'Ct have gathered the information for this article froiu many sources.

SENATOR JONES.

A Florida Friend Visits Him at Detroit^

An Explanation of His Absence From the Senate,

Crncioo, April 16.—A local paper this morning publishes an interview had with Mr. Jam«s McCarthy, of Jacksonville, Fla., who arrived yesterday from Detroit, where, il is asserted he had been sent by several of Senator Jones''personal friends, as well as the press of that section, to investigate the reason? for the Senator's strange actions and to ascertain the cause for his prolonged absence from his post of duty at Washington.

Mr. McCarthy says that Senator Jones originally went to Detroit for his health, and adds: I found that one reason for his remaining there was because he was largely interested in a new manufacturing enterprise now being gotten up in which several millions of dollars are being invested. Regarding the story of the Senator's connections with Miss Palm, Mr. McCarthy says the reports of bis falling in love with the lady and persecuting her are false. His acquaintance was merely passing. Mr. McCarthy fi ''The Senator will avoid directly or indirectly "any put to him by friends or anybody leading in the subject of his being iir any way connected with Miss Palm or Mrs. Palm. When I asked him to explain his prolonged stay, he said,1 came to Detroit in the first place to seek recuperation and rest, and my stay has been prolonged beyond my expectations, or I might add personal inclinations, but the local press srbsequently augmented by the papers of my own state and others nave taken it upon themselves to publish certaip stories relating to my personal welfare and I don't propose to be placed in a ridiculous position before my many friends in Detroit and elsewhere by their dictations. I have been giving iny personal attention to matters relating to my senatorial duties as they required. Other Senators have absented themselves for a greater period of time of which there has been scarcely a mention made and I don't see why I should be made such a conspicuous exception. My health has about returned, and I shall very soon go back to Washington, if the members of the press are satisfied to ^ive up their attaok."

answering questions

A MARKSMAN'S MISS.

He Kills the Man Standing as Target fer Him.

FBEEPORT,

L. I., April

16—Dr. resident

Thomas S. Taylor, a wealthy

of Mennick, who came here some years ago from Texas, yesterday shot and killed his coachman, Thaddaeus Gritman. The doctor had a great reputation as a marksman and yesterday Gritman, Vs ho had often done the same thing before, placed half a dozen bottles on his head, which wer# in quick succession knocked off by shots from his employer's revolver at 50 paces. The supply of bottles falling short and the doctor having one chamber of his Revolver still loaded, he told Gritman to place a tomato can on his head. This he did and the doctor fired, bat just as he pulled the trigger Gritman slightly raised his head and the bullet entered his brain. Those who are acquainted with Taylor's previous history say that an affair of like nature was the cause of his leaving Texas.

SUICIliED.

Wilford Michaels, of Piattsville, Sends a Bullet Through His Brain.

RocKviLiiE, Ind., April

16.—[GAZETTE

speciaL]—Our neighboring viUiage of Piattsville about four miles southeast of here, furnished its sensation Wednesday evening in the suicide of Wilford ^L 1 will "ipictS

farmer of Piattsville. Wilford Michaels took the revolver from the cupboard, went into an adjoining room, seated himself in an arm chair and sent a bullet crashing through his brain. He was found a few minutes later by his parents, sitting erect in the chair, the blood flowing from a wound in his drooping head. He died an hour later. The suicide was premeditated as he had told several persons the day previous that that was the last tinSe they would see him alive. He committed the deed in a fit of despondency caused by mental debility.

In September last Wilford Michaels was in company with a merry wagon load of young folks when the horses became frightened and threw the ocq»pants, with the exception of a small child, from the wagon. The horses tore on followed for about half a mile by Wilford Michaels who fell exhausted in the road. His nervous system was impaired from which he has never recovered, and he has* been an invalid ever since:

Jersey Cattle Sale.

W. P.

the

GKRTRCDE GAT.KISON

Haller, the scientist, has kept papers perfumed with a single grain of ambergris forty years, and there was no appreciable diminution in the strength of the odor.

Ijams, at the sale of thorough-

Chesapeake & Nashville road, says the work will be began* soon and finished in eighteen months that the bridge will be a high one and will be useful in ease elevated roads should be adopted on th Cincinnati side.

The Riley Sensation.

Editor

GAZETTE:—They

bred Jerseys in Indianapolis, sold three ^"and from all points are arriving and Jersey calves. One goes, to Richmond, departing. Ind., another to Troy, Ohio, and the third to Lexington, Ky. The calves were not in Indianapolis and were not even seen by tbe purchasers who bought them on their pedigree, for they are of

bluest blood—regular bovine aristocrats.

New Bridere Over the Ohio,

CINCINNATI,

April 17.-The Covington

& Cincinnati Elevated Railroad Bridge and Transfer company has given the requisite preliminary notice^that they will bridge the Ohio river at Cincinnati. President Eugene Zimmerman, of the

"Riley Sen

sation" of February in which the Col listers and Sanford were implicated, was a decidedly one-sided affair, Collister: being upheld and Sandferd being derided. I have applied to Collister to correct it, whieh he does not see fit to do. It, therefore, becomes my duty to vindicate mysqjK. The reason that it has not been corrected before is that we understood from the article that we

would get to vindicate ourselves in court which would have shown for itself and also waiting for Collister to correct it, which (as it originated with him or his gang) he should have done. In the first place, wherein the article stales that "just before I was married I wrote a communication to Miss Collister asking her to reconsider her decision" relative to myself, is a positive lie. She never received a letter from me after I got acquainted with my wife. And I defy any one to produce such a letter written by me.

The article also states that "Collister

,1 accosted me and I denied having made

a I a

by John Hathorn and told by him and others that I had said such things." This is an infamous lie as Collister himself well knows. The statements which were made by me were not made publicly by me but confidentially to a friend of mine and of course never intended for them to go farther. I never have and never will deny making the statements which I have made. As for the statement about the tar and feathers I have reason to believe them to be false, as I offered at the time to furnish the material if any one would apply them and if such statements were made it was by such a beastly coward that he would not own it afterward and the persons who heard it were deaf and dumb.

As for Gordon calling on me to resign my position as teacher, that is also untrue, he just ordered die to close my school. This order was given without sufficient cause as will be shown in the Vigo court before long. He discharged me as I think merely through personal prejudice, he being the uncle of the girl about whom the statements were made. He did not even give me a chance to say whether I iiad made the statements or not. Now I think this article is due me in consideration of that former article. I am sorry that such things have been made public but I did not give. them publicity, that was all done through other parlies than myself. It was dictated by the representatives of the other side of the case* I hope that this is the last time I will have to answer an article of this kind for I have now said all that I want to say to the public unless I am accosted again.

W. SANDFOBD.

PROWUNG^STRIKEBS.

Arrested by the Militiamen

ST. LOUIS, MO.,

April

17.—At

about

nine o'clock l$st night in East St. Louis First Lieutenant Burroughs, of the Eighth regiment, and four soldiers, who were on duty guarding the coal, dump south of the St. Louis bridge, noticed six men prowling about the cars in that vicinity, who when they beheld the soldiers, attempted to escape. The guards surrounded them and the officers in command questioned them as to their business in that vicinity, and as they could give no satisfactory account of themselves they were placed under arrest and marched at the point of the bayonet to the guard house north of the relay depot, where they were searched and placed under guard. The six prisoners appeared to be strikers, and two of them are the Bailey brothers, who have figured prominently in East St. Louis labor affairs. Their cases will be investigated today.

BUSINESS IMPBOVED.

The business done by East St. Louis railroads continues to increase. Yesterof freight was transferred across the river than during any day since the strike. At a meeting of the managers of the various roads yesterday, at which Gen. Beece and staff were present upon invitation, the situation was thoroughly discussed and the particular inconveniences under which each road suffers, were reported and the causes therefor were explained by the- railroad representatives. Gen. Beece promised more protection for these weak spots. The employees of the various roads were informed of this promi.ce and today several new men

greater ™l„me

are

at work and business is being done in the hitherto unprotected positions of the yards. The Bridge and

TunDei

company, which formerly did all the transferring across the river by the bridge, and the Belt railroad company, which did the transferring between the different railroads, have been unable to emplov a sufficient number of men to do all the business required of them and the ferries and transfer teams have more than they can do. This inconvenience of transferring is the only cause of the roftds not beiog in full operation. Great activity prevails in all the railroad yards today and numerous trains

Smalipox."

CABMI, HI.,

April

17.—The

reports

concerning the smallpox here have been largely exaggerated throughout the state. There are no -new cases in the city and but one case of genuine smallpox here, and that is convalescent. All possible precautions have been taken to prevent the spread of the disease, the infected points of the city being quarantined and guarded so that there can be no danger of its spreading farther.